The present invention generally relates to fiber optic communication, and more particularly relates to a multimode optical fiber that may be particularly useful for use for wavelength division multiplexing across a wide bandwidth range.
High performance computing and data center installations typically require a large number of processor-to-processor interconnections, and using multimode (MM) optical fibers in these systems is cost-effective due to more relaxed alignment tolerances resulting from the large core diameters. Typical multimode optical fibers have graded index cores that are characterized by alpha values of about 2.1. Departures of core shapes from the ideal (or design) alpha values in multimode fibers are considered to be undesirable by those of skill in the art, because such departures result in wider variation of the delay associated with each mode group, and therefore in reduction of modal bandwidth. As a consequence, the manufacturing tolerances on the core shape (alpha values) are very strict.